Hillsong Founder Cleared by Court

It goes without saying that paedophiles don’t tend to brag about their crimes. Even obvious groomers either deny what they’re up to, or try and hide behind euphemisms like “Minor Attracted Persons”. So it’s not exactly surprising that even those closest to paedophiles often remain unaware of their crimes until the police get involved.

Still, it’s true that for decades authorities in churches conspired to cover up when they became aware of the crimes of some priests. Unsurprisingly, such crimes have indelibly stained the reputations of churches in many eyes.

Not least the chattering left, who hardly needed any excuse to work out their hate-boner for Christianity anyway. Oddly, they never similarly rant against the education industry, where paedophilia and covering up are even more rampant than in the churches. No, it’s only the Christian churches they choose to hate. Especially evangelical Christians. Especially if they can connect them to conservative politicians, however spuriously.

For instance, the online chattering classes have been convinced for years that former PM Scott Morrison is supposedly a paedophile, who supposedly orchestrated a cover-up for paedophiles in the Hillsong church he supposedly attends. Not a word of that is true, of course. No matter how often it gets repeated by the left-media, Morrison is not, and has never been, a “convicted paedophile”, nor has he ever been a member of Hillsong.

And, a judge has now ruled, Hillsong did not conspire to cover up child abuse by its founder’s father.

Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of concealing his father’s sexual abuse of a child.

The 69-year-old has previously told a Sydney court he was left “speechless” in 1999 when he first learned of Frank Houston’s abuse of a seven-year-old boy decades earlier.

But Brian Houston insisted he did not go to the police because he was respecting the wishes of the victim, Brett Sengstock, who by that time was aged in his 30s […]

The court heard Mr Sengstock gave evidence that his abuse at the hands of Frank Houston was a “hideous secret”, and one he did not wish for others to know.

At a hearing last year, he gave evidence of feeling “betrayed” by his mother when she raised the allegations with a member of their local church in Sydney’s west.

Although it is true that abuser Frank Houston paid his victim $10,000, that was before Hillsong was actually founded, and, the judge ruled, it could not be proven to be “hush money”.

As for Brian Houston supposedly organising a cover-up of his father’s crimes, the court found that the very opposite was true.

Magistrate Gareth Christofi rejected the Crown’s case that Brian Houston facilitated a “cover-up” to protect the church’s reputation, saying the Hillsong founder spoke openly about his father’s crimes.

During the special fixture hearing last year, Brian Houston described his father as a “serial paedophile”.

He said that in 1999 and 2000, more victims had come forward from his father’s time in New Zealand and steps were taken to remove Frank Houston from the ministry.

The court heard Brian Houston told “many people at various levels” of the church about Frank Houston’s predatory behaviour and referenced it in sermons delivered to churchgoers.

Brian Houston also discussed it during an interview with a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald in 2002, Magistrate Christofi noted.

“That is the very opposite of a cover up.”

So, how did Brian Houston end up in court?

Speaking outside court after the verdict, Mr Houston expressed sympathy with his father’s victim but also hit out at police and prosecutors.

“I’ve been found not guilty today, but in fact, I’ve always been not guilty,” he said […]

However, Mr Houston said he had also been the victim of a “targeted attack”.

“I’m not my father. I did not commit this offence,” he said. “I feel a sense of relief that at last the truth has come out. If I wasn’t Brian Houston from Hillsong, this charge would never have happened. And I know a lot of people agree with me on that.”

ABC Australia

It’s hard not to escape that conclusion, indeed, when so many other organisations associated with and which knowingly conspired to cover up paedophiles in their ranks have never been held to the same scrutiny or hatred.